Michael Hodgson

On 24/04/2024 at 19:59, Downer said:

I’m still waiting in France for the vans I ordered through Irish Railway Models.  Anyone else in the same position?

I hope toy finally got your bananas. 

If not, they must be going off by now!

1 hour ago, Johann Marsbar said:

As we've drifted off topic for the S160's  in recent posts - this might be a good place to post this image that I found in our Museum photo archive this morning, whilst actually looking for something else......

 

 

 

It looks more like a plywood dummy than a real loco - but less convincing than the inflatable Sherman tanks used during WW2

49 minutes ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

The DVSA/VOSA Officers I have spoken to are of the opinion that there is no point pulling vehicles from certain big fleets because they always run legally, smaller fleets that "look tidy" (i.e. curtain straps tucked in) are also less likely to be pulled.

Probably also helps to have a white face.

During the IRA attacks on the City when the "Ring of Steel" was routinely being manned, I noticed that the vehicles stopped on London Bridge tended not to have shamrocks on the side, but were more likely to be white vans from sarf of the river driven by black men.  They were also usually emitting blue smoke though!

51 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

Just to add to the excitement(!), the haulier may be Scandinavian not German. "Bred load" is used on Scandinavian abloads, where as the traditional "Convoi exceptionnel" is used in Germany, and the trailer numberplate appears to lack the circular seals on German plates, various Scandinavian ones being white background and characters only.

The Swedish for wide load is "Bred Last" which is clearly seen on that video clip.

Swedish number plates are generally three letters followed by either 3 digits or 2 digits and another letter; black characters on white.

When my parents lived in Kiruna, the (British) number plate on their Saab was LYX ..., which the Swedes loved as it means "Luxury"

20 hours ago, adb968008 said:

 

https://www.rowland.co.uk/find-your-home/riverside-place/
 

12 minutes ago, Deeps said:

 

My main reason for posting is to ask if anybody has successfully turned one into a running model; I suspect it has been done but is the end result worth the effort?

 

Why bother?  Aren't there enough Hornby or whatever RTR versions around second hand?

1 hour ago, ruggedpeak said:

 

Most of the vehicles that hit railway bridges are Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) and buses, at a cost of around £13,000 per strike –costing the UK taxpayer around £23m in a year.

 

Our research has shown 43 per cent of lorry drivers admit to not measuring their vehicle before heading out on the road, and 52 per cent admit to not taking low bridges into account.

 

 

Its not just lorries though.  In this part of the country there's a lot of level crossings, some of which have (or used to have) an avoiding bridge nearby that's so low that even ordinary traffic has to be careful.  Not unkown for drivers or small vans 4x4s or even cars to forget they've got a roof box or something on a roof rack. 

http://ukrailways1970tilltoday.me.uk/Littleport-signal-box.html

The lowest I've come across is Bishton on the S Wales main line - so low I had to duck to go under it on foot!

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/9u6zfu/bishton_level_crossing_in_newport_wales_at_56_17m/

Network rail has a league table of low brides

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-54871244

2 hours ago, big jim said:

of course I’ve been snowy white in my career have never had anything embarrassing happen! 

 

Perhaps you got that nickname by crashing into a wagon full of flour?

5 hours ago, 97406 said:

The runaway Peds of Staples Corner deserve a mention. 
 

 

 An extremely busy road junction that I used to use on my way to work - it must have caused chaos. 

Traffic was also disrupted there a few years later by an IRA bomb that demolished the adjacent B&Q (on the site of Staples mattress factory after which the junction is named) the same night that my office got destroyed by the Baltic Exchange bomb.

2 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

New question: Plates on signal box levers giving the lever number, description and pulls. I've seen these referred to in writing as "leads", but I don't think I've ever heard the word pronounced. Are they the sort of lead you might use when walking the dog, or the sort of lead you might use for roofing your church (with or without a clerestory)?

Like the Yorkshire city.  Also called "lever plates" or "Pull Plates", at least when then do list the other levers that you have to pull to release the interlocking on the lever.  Quite often the numbers are engraved into Traffolite (a sheet of black plastic sandwiched between two white sheets).

When a lever function has to be changed and a new plate is needed, S&T often just turned and old one over and engraved on the other side, the original being invisible when fitted to a casting on the lever.  So sometimes signalmen do a little unauthorised archeology during a quiet spell by unscrewing the plate to see what it used to be.

5 hours ago, big jim said:

2 that immediately spring to mind for me 

Talacre - Tall acre

clogaenog - cloggy nog

There is a village in Monmouthshire whose nameboards on the different roads in used at least three spellings - Trelleck, Trellech and Trelech.  I think they've now standardised on the last of these, but you will still the other spellings locally.

On 30/04/2024 at 10:49, Rugd1022 said:

We've had the 'bus on the bridge with a train passing underneath', how about the reverse...

 

 

 

or this ...

#

19 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I didn't realise that sharks liked dogfood!

 

They're not fussy.  They'll treat dogs as food given half   a chance.

On 23/04/2024 at 12:23, Dagworth said:

Is it some variant on the “Swedish scrubber”?

 

Andi

This was the Swedish Scrubber ..

https://www.departmentals.com/departmental/977695

Not to be confused with the cleaning lady from Stockholm ...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262704/Female-cleaner-steals-train-drives-apartment-house-exclusive-Stockholm.html

And this may notnecessarily be what one expects to find by googling Grinder!

On 23/04/2024 at 11:04, PhilJ W said:

Heavy braking can cause uneven wear on the track called corrugations so the track has to be smoothed down. This is done by grinding the top surface of the rails. Most rail grinders are of the wheel type.

 

 

deleted

1 minute ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Another "Shamelessly Copied" moment.

Hat tip to @Michael Hodgson on the "Oh The Embarrassment" topic.

This is what happens when you let your children and their friends play unsupervised.

Although we might have a grudging admiration for their ability to get wagons balanced upside down like that?

 

I understand the man responsible got the nickname "Stacker"

11 minutes ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

As an aside to this I often wonder why boats are not usually relocated using their natural habit (assuming that they are operational).

It could of course be cheaper in some circumstances, then again if you have a boat like that & have to count the pennies then you probably can't afford it anyway.

Yes, they could have used the Chelmer to get through town, but it might have bashed this bridge instead

27 minutes ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

 

Only a matter of time before that one appears on the BBC website 😉

Or the WCRC's winter timetable

59 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

It appears to be a fibreglass hull. 

 

If that's been damaged / crushed as a result , then very expensive.  

 

Andy

You can get a fibreglass repair kit for about a tenner. 

Or if you use this stuff you can glue it to a brick viaduct

Perhaps it should gae been fitted with whiiskers, like a cat?

15 minutes ago, SM42 said:

I suspect that the load was measured across the stern ( as it's convenient) forgetting that it tends to be narrower than the bit in the middle. 

 

Pure conjecture ofcourse but may explain it along with the using the wrong arch theory.

 

Whatever happened, it's a rather expensive error. 

 

Andy

Boats are even narrower at the sharp end.

38 minutes ago, greatcoleswoodhalt said:

Malachite, or "ma-luh-kite" per Google, is one I can never retain properly...

Probably better than Malla Shite.

On 04/05/2024 at 19:34, bécasse said:

 

What strikes me about this photo is the extremely tall telegraph pole in the centre, although we can't see the wires.   I really wouldn't fancy climbing that one to do the wiring!.

There seem to be too many arms/insulators for them to run to the other poles in in the photo.  Such height would usually be used where it was needed to clear a very tall obstacle or cross a longer gap than usual (such as to the other side of the canal but the arm are not correctly oriented for that).  Presmably there is another pole out of view just to the right of the photo, and lines cross the road in the foreground.

Rails sometimes ask for a non-refundable deposit, sometimes not.  When they don;t you still have to go through the deposit payment ritual of paying them nothing in order to validate the credit card they will charge in due course (if it hasn't expired by then!)

From what I've seen the nil deposit is usually on models which are announced but the price is not yet fixed, although in this case they have been given an RRP.  They generally include the option to pass on any increase in price if the manufacturer moves the goalposts, with your retaining the right to cancel in these circumstances and get your deposit back.

3 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

All noted CB but much as I try and refrain from criticism of layouts at shows, and bearing in mind my liking of all things S&D, I visited Templecombe at least twice on Friday and as per @Crantock, nothing was moving*

 

 

Just like the real S&DJR then.